A data center may be defined as a location, for instance, a room that houses computer systems arranged in a number of racks. These racks are configured to house a number of computer systems which typically include a number of printed circuit boards (PCBs), mass storage devices, power supplies, processors, micro-controllers, and semi-conductor devices, that dissipate relatively significant amounts of heat during their operation.
Air conditioning units are typically used to cool heated air and to supply the cooled air to the computer systems. The cooled air is typically supplied through a series of vent tiles positioned above a plenum that directs airflow from the air conditioning units to the vent tiles. Conventional cooling systems are typically provisioned and operated for worst-case or peak load scenarios. Since it is estimated that typical data center operations only utilize a fraction of their computer systems, provisioning for these types of scenarios often increases the inefficiencies found in conventional cooling systems.
In addition, workloads are typically placed onto the computer systems in the racks in either a random manner or based upon a scheme that follows the availability of the computer systems. As such, conventional systems typically place the workload on a plurality of computer systems and then either decrease or increase the air conditioning unit operations depending upon changes in the temperatures of the airflow supplied back into the air conditioning units. Again, operating air conditioning units in this manner is inefficient because the air conditioning units typically consume greater amounts of energy than is necessary to adequately cool the computer systems.